Indians Prospect Insider

Justin Masterson entered the second half of 2012 with perhaps a chip on his shoulder. While much of his season has resembled his much heralded break-out season in 2011, he's had moments of struggle where his velocity was down, and his control was erratic. That wasn't the case on Friday Night, as Masterson dominated. Jim Berdysz shares his "Second Thoughts," after the jump.

Strong pitching was on display at the upper levels of the Tribe's minor league system Friday. Jeanmar Gomez made his third start for the Columbus Clippers. When we last saw him with the Cleveland Indians, he seemed to show a lack of confidence, but was that the case on Friday? Read on to see.

EASTLAKE, OH- The Lake County Captains withstood a late inning rally by the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and walked off in the 15th inning Friday night with a 7-6 win. The game was a long one as it lasted a total of 4:22.

Jeanmar Gomez goes distance against the first-place Indians, pitching a complete-game shutout. Led by Gomez’s start, perhaps the best by any Clippers’ starter this season, Columbus beat Indianapolis, 2-0.

Akron, OH — Akron knuckleballer Steven Wright took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Friday night, picking up his seventh win of the season as the Aeros shut out the Altoona Curve, 3-0, at Canal Park.

The short season Single-A Mahoning Valley Scrappers won just two games this past week to slip .500 and an even 12-12 going into Friday night's game. Some inconsistent offense along with some poor pitching out of the bullpen have been the biggest contributors to their recent slide. Andrew Zajac recaps the week that was in his weekly notebook "The Scrapperbook".

It was a chaotic nine inning game of baseball last night as the AZL Indians pitching was bruised and battered for 17 runs off 21 hits to accommodate 5 errors in the field in a 17-15 loss to the D-Backs. The Indians 2012 5th round pick Dylan Baker started the game and looked to have some nerves on the mound in his professional debut.

Today is the MLB Draft signing deadline (5:00pm ET). The Indians have now signed all of their top ten round picks and have 25 of their 40 picks in the fold. It is sort of an anticlimactic day since all of the big signings have been made and there is very little the Indians can do to add much, but they still have the means to add another player or two or three today. Tony chimes in with his last signing update of the year, and a non-premium piece to boot.

The Low-A Lake County Captains had their walking boots on this past week in the batters box, while on the mound the pitcher's lived on the edge. The Captains were once again up and down with their performance, but there were some bright spots, and Lianna Holub recaps the week that was in her weekly notebook "On-Deck with the Captains".

Bad hitting, poor pitching, and costly errors doomed the Scrappers Thursday night, as they dropped their third straight game, getting drubbed in Lowell by the Spinners 10-1. It was one of those nights for the Scrappers where little went right.

It wasn't a great night for the Indians minor league affiliates, as every single team experienced a loss on Thursday. Despite the carnage in the standings, there were plenty of great performances up and down the system last night. There was Jordan Smith showing off some power and T.J. House bouncing back in Akron. But the top spot goes to someone who hasn't been seen by many, but will become a household name before too much longer. Find out who he is (and start learning his name) inside.

When it rains, it pours. After a 1 ½ hour rain delay before the start of the game, the Curve came from behind to beat the Aeros 3-2 in 12 innings Thursday night at Canal Park. Akron (52-39) mustered only three hits off of Altoona’s pitching staff, which went 11 scoreless innings and kept the Curve in a position to gut one out the entire night.

The second half of the season for the Columbus Clippers started Thursday night, and the club opened play with a split against the Indianapolis Indians. Columbus (46-46) played a doubleheader versus the first-place Indians. The Clippers took game one, a shortened seven-inning contest, 4-1. Indianapolis rallied to win game two, 2-1, but it took them extra innings to do it.

The Carolina Mudcats watched another rally thwarted when the Frederick Keys came up with one of their own on Thursday night at Harry Grove Stadium. Pinch hitter Mike Flacco launched a towering two-run shot over the left field wall, and the Keys escaped, 4-3.

The Lake County Captains dropped the second of a three-game series against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 5-3 on Thursday morning.
Lefty Shawn Morimando (3-2, 3.90) toed the rubber for the Captains against Wisconsin righty Chad Thompson (3-2, 4.79).

(UPDATED at 11:05 PM ET) Some big news has come out today with regard to a few high profile 2012 Draft picks by the Indians. Are the Indians close to signing D'Vone McClure and Caleb Hamrick? Or are they going to go to college? Tony has the details on the decision both of them have made, plus an update on the signing decisions from a few other players taken later in the draft.

Today is the official start of the second half of the season, a time when prospects either surge or fizzle into a long offseason. In today’s Happenings, Tony takes a look at the recent surge by lefty Mike Rayl and outfielder Aaron Siliga, the promotions of two high profile relievers Shawn Armstrong and Tyler Sturdevant, he provides quotes from Ross Atkins on several Single-A players, and also has news and updates on players such as Corey Kluber, Matt Packer, Jesus Aguilar, Francisco Lindor, Tyler Naquin, Tyler Booth, and many more.